As of April, I’ve resided in my present home for 30 years aka half of my entire life. During these decades, I’ve occupied the upper two floors of my two family property with the first floor flat, an independent two bedroom flat, housing either a family member or a tenant.
When my flat was functioning as a rental property, I was required by the city of Albany to hold a Residential Occupancy Permit or ROP. This certificate is bestowed upon an acceptable inspection by Codes Enforcement and payment of $50. The ROP presently is valid for 2 years, although in the past it was for a more random length of time, like 22 months.
Last week I received an email that told me I was in violation, that my ROP had expired and I needed to address the situation prior to my next inspection date of 9/10/26. To be clear, there had been no inspection – someone in the Codes office must have run a report or something that showed which ROPs had expired and initiated the communication.
God forbid someone in the office had run such a report prior to the expiration date to inform ROP holders that their certificate was expiring – you know, like the City Clerk’s office notifies me about my dog’s license upcoming renewal each year.
This process never fails to piss me off. In a previous year, I just about lost my mind when I signed for a certified letter, a pricy piece of mail, from the city declaring my property to be in violation. At that time, I attended a Common Council meeting at City Hall and registered my complaint about the methods and tone used by the Department of Buildings & Regulatory Compliance. Their approach is accusatory and aggressive and very much unappreciated by me, a citizen who pays her bills on time and has zero history of noncompliance.
Apparently, they didn’t get the message because their method of contact, while improved that they’re now leaning into email rather than expensive postal services, and tone, remain offensive to a person like myself who always deals with responsibilities in a timely and thorough manner.
Incidentally, presently a family member lives in my flat and I am exempt from meeting the requirements, i.e. payment and an inspection, to obtain an ROP, so this demand is moot.
My issue with all of this, beyond the aggressive and obnoxious communication from the city, is this: I own a two family property with a single flat that has a history of being used as a rental property – and I reside in the majority of the home. I most certainly couldn’t be described as a landlord by most measurements and I consciously chose to live in a multi family home because I have zero desire to be house poor. I prefer to travel.
Note that I don’t use the term “income property.” I’ve never charged a tenant (my last one resided downstairs for approximately 15 years) even close to the market rate for the apartment. I’m not in this to make money – sorry, I’m not much of a capitalist.
Now, imagine how I might feel, as I’m resolving the situation of my now unrequired certificate of occupancy, when I read an article such as this one published by the Times Union on 8/10/26: Albany apartments overrun by trash, rodents, drug users and mold.
In case you can’t access this article, allow me to sum it up for you – an absentee landlord who owns a fifty unit building which sounds to be unfit for occupancy, does not possess valid ROPs for any of the units as they expired nearly a year ago.
And the city is coming at me? GTFO.
When people bemoan the fact that Albany will never move beyond being on the precipice of truly being a happening city to live in and raise a family, it is archaic administrative policies and procedures such as this that always come to mind for me. When I owned a business and was required to resubmit documentation annually to obtain a patio permit, including schematics that were unchanged year after year and an inspection, I was advised to simply photocopy the previous year’s submission and reuse the documents.
To me, that sounds ridiculous. How about I just send you the check and proof of insurance and we move forward, people? Why was I being asked to needlessly jump through hoops repeatedly?
In this current situation, why was I not just contacted by mail, email or telephone and informed that my ROP was approaching its expiration date and asked to respond?
And – why am I, a person who is an actual tax paying resident of Albany who owns the home in which I live, with a single rental unit, being addressed in a tone that is borderline hostile, while an actual slumlord who is in arrears of a minimum of $2500 in annual fees and whose property is home to a 100+ people, is allowed to conduct business as usual?
Albany – do better. This kind of administrative bullshit is exactly why I quit high school in my senior year. As I approach my senior years of life, maybe I’ll need to consider quitting this city, too.
DelSo 